


Heart's Desire

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Apples, Book: The Magician's Nephew, Character Study, Fifteen Minute Fic, Gap Filler, Gen, Missing Scene, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-30
Updated: 2009-04-30
Packaged: 2018-02-09 05:45:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1971156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jadis in the garden: separation from God is only a punishment if you believe in him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart's Desire

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by the 4/27/09 word #108 on the [15_minute_fic](http://15_minute_fic.livejournal.com) Livejournal community.

"Come in by the gold gates or not at all," the garden's maker had written. And truly, there was no need to turn aside, walk a quarter-circle around the hilltop, and clamber over the wall, but Jadis was the Queen of Charn and she bowed to _no one_.

She would have the apple on her own terms, as she had earned everything else in her life.

The fruit was sharp and almost painfully sweet, with a metallic tang underneath that expanded to bitter and salt in the aftertaste. The juice was shockingly dark for such a fair-fleshed fruit. Jadis licked the red-brown stain from her hand and laughed.

Pure theatrics: the apple _bled_. Was that supposed to induce guilt or shame?

The Lion had made this world, she acknowledged, but she had been here at the making; her magic was thus woven deep into its earth and air, inseparable from its very fabric of being. Until this world died, the Lion must adjust his plans to account for her. And even after, she could continue -- if that simpering fool had learned to travel between the planes, surely so could she! And she would learn to cross directly, without the crutch of that horrible, drowning place between the worlds.

A breeze stirred the garden, swirling petals and scent from the tree. Jadis sneezed, and then nearly gagged on the rotting sweetness of the silvery perfume. Stumbling, she turned aside, holding her arms across her face as if to block the very air from attacking her.

The air stilled. The scent dissipated.

Jadis lowered her arms and clenched her free hand, seething. So. The Lion had fashioned a trap for those who defied him and ate the fruit unbidden. But even he could not stop the apple from performing its function; already she could feel new strength coursing through her blood and bones like a river of ice, scouring away her mortality.

She had forever, now. She had new magic to master, a new world to conquer, a new foe to destroy. If the Lion thought that a mere tree would defeat her or that length of days would lead her to despair, he was a fool, as her sister had been.

Jadis ran her tongue across her teeth, savoring the iron tang of immortality, and took another bite.

**Author's Note:**

> Near the end of _The Magician's Nephew_ , Aslan tells Digory and Polly that Jadis "has won her heart's desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want: they do not always like it."
> 
> First, people do _not_ always get what they want; anyone who claims otherwise is engaging in sophistry or wishful thinking. Second, I find it very hard to reconcile Jadis's portrayal in _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ with a person mired in misery and despair. She seems to be doing just fine to me.
> 
> So with the greatest respect, I must conclude that Lewis (via Aslan) is talking through his hat and should be disregarded on this issue. :-)


End file.
